Potash to pipelines: Africa’s top business stories

Story: Listed here are five organization stories creating headlines in Africa this 7 days.

Kenya’s president hiked the country’s least wage by 12% on Sunday (May perhaps 1) to enable personnel cope with a surge in customer rates, in section driven by the war in Ukraine.

Uhuru Kenyatta claimed the increase was vital as the least wage experienced not been reviewed in a few decades and the price tag of residing has greater.

Nigeria’s oil minister mentioned on Monday (May well 2) that Russia has expressed fascination in investing in a Nigeria-Morocco gasoline pipeline project.

Besides linking the two countries, the over 3,000 mile lengthy pipeline is envisioned to link other African international locations to Europe.

Electric power cuts and floods have hampered growth in South Africa’s private sector, with exercise growing at a slower fee in April, a study confirmed on Thursday (Could 5).

The S&P World-wide South Africa Acquiring Managers’ Index – or PMI – fell to 50.3 in April from 51.4 in March – its most affordable in four months.

Facts also confirmed S&P’s clientele were ever more battling with rising prices.

Also in South Africa – mining businesses have resorted to trucking coal to ports to satisfy a surge in European demand, bypassing the deteriorating rail infrastructure, which they blame for billions of bucks in missing revenue.

Trucking coal costs about 4 instances additional than rail, in accordance to mining businesses. But they say they have no selection.

Inadequate maintenance, a deficiency of spare components for trains, copper cable theft and vandalism have disrupted condition logistics firm Transnet’s freight rail companies, leading to coal exports to drop in recent years.

And last but not least, Nigeria had to purchase emergency supplies of Canadian potash following becoming not able to import the fertilizer from Russia, thanks to Western sanctions.

Russia’s Uralkali, a key world wide producer of the crop nutrient, has been Nigeria’s exceptional supplier because 2019.

Spot costs today are up far more than 250% for deliveries to West Africa when compared to very last calendar year, in accordance to commodities pricing company Argus Media, dealing a even further blow to the country’s funds.